Some 150 people have been arrested in California as protests spilled into a third night, after decisions not to charge white police officers for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner prompted outcries about the use of force on minorities.
Protests in Berkley involved more than a thousand people, several hundred of whom stormed a major California freeway on Monday night, blocking it off and holding traffic up.
Damn good thing I didn't need to drive anywhere tonight #berkeleyprotestspic.twitter.com/QNcNMX9LHe
— Chris Taylor (@FutureBoy) December 9, 2014
California Highway Patrol officers began arresting scores of
protesters around 11:30 pm, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
Protesters had been throwing rocks and other projectiles at
officers, California Highway Patrol spokesman Daniel Hill told
Reuters. The arrests were predominantly made for obstruction.
Yes, I'm tweeting in handcuffs. No stopping me. #Berkeley#BlackLivesMatter#FTP#KettleAtRosspic.twitter.com/IWiphyXfwd
— Not Frantz Fanon (@violentfanon) December 9, 2014
Protesters started trying to access Interstate 90 at around 6:30
pm, outnumbering law enforcers hugely, while another group
blocked an Amtrak train shortly before the arrests began.
Thirty-year-old Danielle Fung was one of a dozen who linked arms on the track. She told the paper that the purpose of the action was to start “standing up for what we want, standing up for ourselves,” she said. “We are bringing attention to humanity.”
“By shutting down this train, it will delay the rest of the
trains in the Bay Area,” Navid Shaghaghi, 30, of Berkeley
told the paper. “Now everyone will be asking, ‘Why are the
trains delayed?’ Because of the protesters. Unless we’re free, we
will prevent the system from operating.”
Shutting down highway and train during this night protests in #Berkeley#BerkeleyProtestspic.twitter.com/HDojeXJxPT
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) December 9, 2014
Further protests occurred outside the Barclays Center in
Brooklyn. Some 300 demonstrators blocked off the streets
chanting: “I can’t breathe” – the last words of Eric
Garner and a rallying catchphrase for thousands of demonstrators
protesting in cities across the country at his death.
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, a 44-year-old black man, died on
Staten Island, New York, after a white police officer put him in
a choke hold, a technique prohibited by the New York City Police
Department. After repeating about a dozen times, “I can’t
breathe,” Garner, who had asthma, reportedly suffered a
heart attack and died. Garner left behind a family of six
children.
The New York grand jury’s decision not to charge the officer and
a similar non-indictment of former Ferguson, Missouri police
officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot unarmed black teenager
Michael Brown in August, have resulted in outrage and protests,
coast to coast, over racial profiling, police brutality and an
overall mistrust of America’s legal system. The phrase “hands
up, don’t shoot” - a reference to Brown’s killing – has also
become a rallying cry.
Just unbelievable picture from #berkeleyprotests last night. #EricGarner#Berkeley#Ferguson#BlackLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/04yuu4Dm0M
— αηιs (@H0XH4) December 9, 2014
In downtown Phoenix, a further 200 people marched on police
headquarters over the death of another unarmed black man at the
hands of a white officer. Thirty-four-year-old Rumain Brisbon was
fatally shot after accusations of drug dealing.
“I want a conviction. When was the last time an officer was
charged for killing someone?” Brisbon’s friend, Brandon
Dickerson, told ABC 15. “I want a conviction.”
His nine-year-old daughter led the march to the Phoenix police
station, asking who shot her dad. She was barely audible through
her tears.